Accuracy: 2 m (6 ft)

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

22-Jan-2005 -- I had been thinking about visiting this Confluence for a long time as it was close to my home in Lusaka, and I actually made a feeble attempt to visit it on the way home from our Xmas visit to 15S 26E. Unfortunately, I was out-voted by my Mom, Dad, wife, and two daughters, and had to continue on home to Lusaka after a cursory tour of the town of Mumbwa, just northeast of the DC.

This most recent successful visit was a lot easier as I had with me Joshua Siame, a clinical officer and fellow worker on the Pediatric Aids project we have been doing for the last year in Lusaka. I found that, along with a GPS and topo map, the most important thing you need for a successful and enjoyable confluence visit is a willing and able degree confluence explorer, and Joshua fit the bill.

We drove west from Lusaka on the nice (newly-asphalted) "Mumbwa road" to the area of the DC point in about 1 1/2 hours, and proceeded down the muddy dirt roads I had seen three weeks before. We got as close as we could by driving (1.7 km) and left the car at a friendly farmer's house. We walked through the fields of maize and cotton and eventually ended up ploughing our way through the bush beyond, past some more fields and then up and over a hill to the confluence point. Joshua set a quick pace there with the GPS as guidance, and it was all I could do to keep up! A new degree-confluence star is born! Joshua is the first Zambian to lead an expedition to a DC in his home country!

The DC itself was in a relatively open area between two hills that had been burned off in the previous dry season, but was now nice and green as we are in the middle of the rainy season here in southern Africa. We took the requisite DC point, South, East, North, West and GPS photos and then started back as the overcast sky broke up. We got smart on our return to the car and went via the local farmers' paths, rather than just ploughing through the fields and bush as we had on the way out, and it was a much easier walk back to the car.

On the way back we stopped of for some cold drinks, and paid a visit to Joshua's sister-in-law who lives in the town of Mumbwa, and then had an easy drive back to Lusaka.

Joshua enjoyed the this trip enough to suggest we go to see 15S 29E and 15S 30E the next day, and since I was already a confirmed confluence seeker/lunatic, we set out the next AM... see 15S 30E.